Lost in Flight (12 page)

Mandy folded her arms.  “Yes-she-can.  Best damn angry girl singer to come out of this place.”  Biker 3 raised his eyebrows and went back inside with the older, scary looking, cowboy hat wearing Biker 4. 

Bonnie did her best seductive walk toward Biker 1 and Biker 2 who were encouraging Christina to keep singing.  Both were clad in denim and leather, and seemed friendly enough.  Biker 1 was the bigger of the two and must have stood at least 6’3.  He had long blonde hair in a ponytail and was about their age.  Christina had to tilt her head back to see his face. 

Biker 2 was shorter and heavier set with arms that looked like tree trunks.  He had a buzz cut and beard.  He had dark eyes that twinkled and he appeared older than Biker 1, maybe in his mid-30s.  In her drunken state, Christina thought they actually looked harmless and friendly.

The women were way over-dressed for that place, but it didn’t matter.  There were a few reasons why women like them came to the bar and the top reason was drugs.  The women really didn’t want to dwell on the other reasons because they weren’t there for
that
. 

Approaching the two men, Bonnie asked if they had any weed for sale.  Looking Bonnie up and down, Biker 2 said, “Maybe.  You’re not cops are you?” 

For some reason, Christina found this hilariously funny.  “Cops?  Cops?  Would cops do this?” 

She took off her shoes and attempted to throw them on the roof of the bar.  Every time she threw a shoe, her dress came up flashing her panties, which interested the bikers.  It took a few times for Christina to get her shoes on the roof, but when she did, she threw her arms up in the air, unintentionally exposing herself to everyone, and cheered in triumph. 

The bikers looked at each other and then back at Christina.  They laughingly clapped her success and kept pumping their arms in the air encouraging Christina to do the same.  After she’d flashed herself for the umpteenth time, Mandy made her stop. 

After Christina’s performance, the bikers produced a joint, and Bonnie handed over some money, but they waved it away.  All five of them went out of sight from the road and lit up.  Christina had two drags and then waved her hand up in surrender.  She hadn’t smoked weed since high school and didn’t miss it. 

She’d never been a druggie and now she remembered why.  She sat down on the ground to regain some measure of composure, which made her notice her shoes were missing.  Where were her shoes?  Where
the F
were her shoes?

Christina kept asking this question over and over in a loop to Bonnie, and Mandy making them laugh.  Mandy had to sit down on the asphalt in the car park and cross her legs so she didn’t wet her pants.  Christina stood up and swayed.

“Right,” she said.  “I’m going to see him” and started walking barefoot home. 

Biker 1 yelled.  “Hey, where you going?”

Christina shouted over her shoulder.  “To see my husband.” 

Biker 1 grinned.  “Nice.  You’re a good woman… you know that?  A man always appreciates being woken up by his woman for sex.”

Clutching at Bonnie’s leg, Mandy hauled herself up off the ground giggling, “She isn’t going out there for sex.  She wants a fight with him.” 

The two bikers looked at each other and frowned.  “Hey, that’s not good,” said Biker 1 and shouted at Christina.  “You’re a bad woman.  Go show him some love.  Men are simple.  Sex equals good.  Fighting?  Not so much, unless you’re both into that.” 

Biker 2 nodded.  “Yeah, go see your husband.  You do a bit of a dance” and he started shaking his hips, “take your clothes off,” he started mock stripping, “shake your money maker.”  He started to do things that were obscene, “and he’ll love it.”  He winked at Christina, nodded his head then gave her the double thumbs up. 

Biker 1 agreed.  “Yeah, Tommy.  That’s right.  Do that sweetheart and he’ll love it: promise.  It’ll all be sweeeeet.”

Christina glared at the bikers in disapproval.  She’d never been a sex kitten and never wanted to be one.  She was a feminist, god-damn-it, and she wasn’t about to take advice from bikers on how to degrade herself for men.  Standing up straight and pointing a finger, Christina burbled.  “Sex isn’t some ultimate feminist statement.  Women shouldn’t be complicit in our own sexual objectification.  It’s wrong.” 

Biker 2 turned to Mandy with a confused look on his face.  “What’s she talking about?” 

Mandy sighed.  “I don’t think even she knows at this stage.” 

Then Mandy started singing so badly and to a tune no one else recognized, that the bikers moved away.  Mandy had a lot of talents, but vocals weren’t one of them.  For some reason, this was hilariously funny and all three of the women started giggling like idiots.

As Christina started walking away, Bonnie was the first to recover.  “You are not going out there, Dina.  I swear…” 

Christina turned to look at her friends and then started running as fast as she could toward Riley’s.  Bonnie and Mandy stared in shock. 

Biker 1 said to Bonnie, “Red, you’d look pretty sweet on my bike.  Do you know where she’s going?” 

Bonnie nodded and looked at the bikers. “Could you take both of us, please?”

Biker 2 grinned.  “I thought you’d never ask.” 

The bikers shared a knowing look.  They’d seen this before.  These bitches were crazy.

********************

“I am
so
angry with you right now, Dina.  This is a really dumb idea.  So-so dumb and it’s on you.  If you want to go out there – fine.  Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”  Bonnie was so angry, steam was nearly coming out her ears.  “We had to chase you on motorbikes, for God’s sake... motorbikes, with, with
bikers
.” 

They’d caught up with Christina down the road and with the bikers’ help, held her until they forced her into Bonnie’s car.  They tried to take Christina back home, but she told them she’d just wait for them to leave and go anyway.  Against their better judgment, Mandy and Bonnie agreed to take her to Riley’s, but neither of them was happy about it.

Christina started giggling, setting off Mandy and Bonnie.  Even though Bonnie was trying hard to stay mad at Dina, the giggling was infectious.  Bonnie couldn’t stop the giggles either. 

“What is it?”  Mandy giggled, setting them all off again into loud, raucous laughter. 

“Do you really think Stephany Gilmore asks Riley for bad mama jama sex?  And what would that mean?”  Christina giggled.  They all laughed and shrieked so loudly that they nearly deafened each other in the confined space of the car.

Mandy opened her eyes wide.  “Oooooh, Dina.  I know.  Why don’t you ask him?  Go on.  I dare you.” 

Christina nodded and her eyes lit up.  “Yeah-yeah.  I WILL.” 

Dares were part of their shared history.  Growing up they’d been notorious, getting into more scrapes than the average girls, daring each other to do things.  They graduated from sticking all manner of things in people’s mailboxes to semi-dangerous stunts involving bicycles and jumping off bridges.  

They’d kissed ugly boys on dares, mooned cars, and worn the ugliest outfits to Prom.  Mandy and Christina had been constrained by having boyfriends in their teens, but they’d all stalked boys for Bonnie.  They’d engaged in actions that were not only unhealthy, but what Christina now realized was criminal.

Bonnie parked the car at the end of the Riley’s long driveway and told the other two to shut up.  They stumbled down the Riley’s driveway in the dark and fell on more than one occasion, making so much noise one of the farm dogs started barking.  Mandy was frightened of dogs and pushed Bonnie in the direction of where the dog was barking.  Hard. 

Bonnie fell head first into a hedge and came out swinging.  She landed a hit on Mandy’s arm and they started arguing until Christina told them to “shush.”  All three sat down on the ground with their hands stuffed in their mouths to stop laughing so they didn’t wake Riley’s parents.

As they passed the larger house and she caught sight of the old farmhouse, Christina stopped, and stared.  It had got bigger and she pointed to her friends.  Mandy nodded.  “They put an extension on a few years ago.  I forgot you wouldn’t have seen it.”  It made Christina a bit sad and nostalgic for the old version.  She’d always liked its rustic qualities.

The women shuffled along to the side of the farmhouse, which looked deserted and made them hesitate.  Bonnie hissed in Christina’s ear.  “Which one is Riley’s bedroom?”  Even after all this time she knew.  Christina pointed to a window around the side of the house and they inched around in the dark, stumbling and falling until they found it. 

There were no lights on and not a sound from inside.  Christina whispered.  “There’s no-one home.  Let’s go.” 

Mandy whispered back.  “Shhhh.  Of course he’s home.  It’s nearly 3:00 a.m.  He’s probably asleep.”  Going up to the window Mandy started knocking on it and when there was no response, she started banging harder, and harder calling.  “Riley.  Riley, RIIIILEY, RIIIIIIILLLEYYYY!”  

Both Bonnie and Christina tried to drag Mandy away, but she was determined.  Yanking Mandy by the arm, Bonnie swung her away from the window, but Mandy tried to pull away.  Wrenching free, Mandy fell over backwards into the garden and hurt herself.  She stood up and started wailing.  “Fuck, fuck, FUCK, FARRRRRRRK!” 

Bonnie and Christina went into hysterics.  All three decided they were just going to run away, but Mandy’s actions and loud “fucks” had attracted attention from inside.  They all stopped still in shock when the lights went on in the house and the door opened.  There stood Riley on the porch looking at them. 

He had no shirt on and was wearing jeans, and looked like he’d just woken up, but he didn’t look angry.  When he saw Christina, his eyes opened wide in surprise.  Grinning, Riley said, “Evening – or morning, ladies.” 

Mandy and Bonnie both gave, “Hey Rileys” back.  Bonnie said to Christina, “Are you sure about this?”  When she nodded, Bonnie sighed.  “Be it on your own head” and gave Christina an almighty push, which nearly flung her head first into the garden. 

Looking up at Riley for the first time, Christina took in all the little changes.  His hair was cut short at the back and spiky on the top, which gave him a bit more of a dangerous look, accentuated by a large, heavily inked tattoo running down his arm.  Christina thought he didn’t need to look dangerous.  He already was, especially to her.

When they’d been together, his hair had been long.  His face hadn’t changed much, just filled out.  He had a strong jaw line, wide mouth, and reasonably full lips.  Riley could give most women a run for their money in the pouty-sullen stakes when he wanted to. 

It was the smile, though, that was the panty-dropping killer.  When Riley smiled or laughed, he could charm the pants off most people.  Christina knew this from experience.  He’d charmed the pants off her on more than one occasion.

Riley’s nose was long and straight, but his eyes were his most effective weapons.  They were green with gold irises that changed color depending on his mood and framed by dark thick lashes.  If Riley set his sights on you and locked eyes, you didn’t stand a chance.  Christina never had and there he stood looking at her, with a half-smile on his face, and half-naked. 

He came down the steps, pulled her out of the garden, put an arm around her and took her inside.  Before he closed the door he looked at Bonnie and Mandy with a smile.  Mandy blew him kisses and gave him double thumbs up.  Bonnie just nodded her head in acknowledgement, with a stern look on her face.  Both women left with their arms around each other and walked out of sight.

********************

Riley, Shanwick, The Past, Saturday 6 October 2012 (One day ago)

When Riley first heard the noise outside, he thought Stephany Gilmore had arrived with friends.  He was going to tell them he wasn’t interested, until he heard Mandy swearing in the garden.  She was the wife of one of his oldest friends and he spent a lot of time with Mandy and Dave in New York.  He would have recognized Mandy’s voice anywhere, but he didn’t expect her to be using language like that outside his house, or to be accompanied by Christina.

Until now, he’d had a pretty uneventful night.  Johnny had come over and he’d drunk a few beers, as they listened to music.  Johnny told Riley Christina was leaving Monday and both agreed that all he had to do was avoid her for a couple of days, and everything would work out fine. 

Fat chance.  Now, here she was standing in the house looking… actually pretty rough.  Riley cast a glance over her and raised an eyebrow.  She looked like she’d had an interesting night.  She had no shoes on and her feet were filthy.  There were grass stains and dirt on her dress, and her lipstick was smeared.  The polite term for her hair was windswept, but none of it mattered to him.  She was Christina.

Riley closed the door behind him, leaned against the door jam and stared at her, trying not to laugh.  He looked at her and smiled.  “Hello Missus.” 

She looked at him and slurred-bellowed.  “It’s Ms. now, Riley.” 

He pulled a face, but his lips twitched in amusement.  He added drunk to his checklist.  “
Ms.
it is then.” 

Christina stared at him for a bit then blurted.  “Can I please use your bathroom?” 

Riley laughed and shook his head. “Sure.  You remember where it is right?”  He pointed down the hallway.  “Third door on the left.  I’m going back to bed now because it is 3 o’clock in the morning.  When you’re finished, come find me.” 

He lay down on his bed and laughed quietly.  “What the hell?”  He wasn’t expecting this.  He was resolved to avoid her until she left and let the status quo remain.  He figured he’d take her home when she was finished whatever she was doing, but if she wanted a conversation first then they could have one because it was long overdue. 

********************

Christina

Christina watched Riley walk back to his bedroom and leave the door open.  She didn’t really want a conversation anymore and was considering taking the bikers’ advice.  She trotted off down the hall because she was busting.  After she’d finished, she got a look at herself in the mirror.  She nodded at her reflection thinking she didn’t look too bad.